Rescue
by Piccolo's Love Slave
Summary: Faced with needing to save an injured cubling from a half-mad High One, Chieftess Weepingshale finds an unexpected way of saving them both. (Finished)


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Rescue  
An Elfquest (Ravenbrook Holt) Fan-fiction Collaboration By  
Ami E. Bowen and Beth Dean   
  
_Disclaimer: Elfquest is (c) WaRP Graphics_   
  
The forest was welcoming the new-green as white snow and brown grasses gave way to lush greenery and blue skies scattered with fluffy whiteness. Chieftess Weepingshale nursed her newborn son Lake as she leaned against the strong chest of her stead-fast lifemate, Bloodhowler.   
  
The wind scattered a few leaves across the entrance to their den, caressing Weepingshale's ashen locks. As the afternoon crept by, The chieftess listened to the sounds of her tribe going about their daily chores and activities. Gemsinger was working on a new song, the notes of her reed flutes rising like audible smoke through the recesses of the holt. The flutist's daughter, Songdaughter's giggle could be heard as she spoke in soft tones with Lastfall and Roughcall.   
  
Seedling, Weepingshale and Bloodhowler's six season old daughter ran through the holt screaming in laughter as Star's Light chased her, also in a fit of mirth. It would seem the spring-dizzy season was upon them. Weepingshale smiled, gazing down at Lake as he suckled fast at her tender nipple, his tiny face puckered in concentration as his lips worked the teat expertly.   
  
"He'll be a fine lad when he's grown." Bloodhowler said, stroking her hair.  
  
"He is a fine lad now, beloved." Weepingshale corrected, turning to nuzzle his cheek.   
  
***  
  
** He never says much. ** Chari lock-sent to her friend and tribemate, Glitterfall, as they wound reeds together near the stream, the daystar high in the sky and the distant cries of the hunter birds calling to each other on the crags above and around them. ** Just lurks in the darkness with his wolf-friend...Stealth. **   
  
** Oh, I've seen him look at a maiden a time or two. ** Glitterfall smiled, blinking wide silvery blue eyes at the light-haired elf beside her, ** Though only as long as they don't catch him doing it!**   
  
** Oh, but I'd wager my best furs you'd love to catch him! ** Chari giggled, reached over and tugging Glitterfall's ear teasingly. Everyone in the tribe knew Glitterfall's record for taking and having lovemates. She had done so even before her chosen lifemates; Nightbreeze and Preyhowl, had gone. Her mates had always understood her fickle nature regarding partners in the furs and had encouraged her in her pursuits, Nightbreeze often joining her in seducing one elf after another.   
  
Chari remains one of the few elves within the holt not to have succumbed to Glitterfall's beguiling ways, though she loved Glitterfall with all her heart as a tribemate and friend. Glitterfall ducked from Chari's hand and tossed her another handfull of reeds, "Here, Blue-eyes, finish the handle while I find us more reeds to work with."   
  
Pushing herself fluidly to her feet, Glitterfall felt a hand on her shoulder and spun about in surprise. "GreyStalker!" She gasped, a hand to her ample chest, "How did you...I didn't even scent you!"   
  
Chari turned her head, her blue eyes growing wide with astonishment. She too could not understand how either of them could have missed his scent, especially when he was right behind them. The elf had his hood on, even though it was daylight and not too hot or too cold, and silver-grey eyes stared silently back at the two females. A shock of brown hair fell across his forehead and partically hid one eye.   
  
In reply to her stuttering question he produced a small leather pouch from his jacket pocket, handing to Glitterfall,   
  
"Poultice." He said, smiling faintly as he watched her loosen the drawstring and dip a finger in the mushy goo, "Blocks your scent...so other creatures...wolves..." He glanced behind him as Silentmoon rode past on her bond-wolf Yellowsnarl, "Birds...and elves." He grinned widly at her as she held her finger to her nose and sniffed delicatly. "Can't smell you."   
  
"It smells...like the forest." She said, handing him the bag, "How do you make it?"   
  
"Ah." He waved a finger in her face, "That remains one of my many secrets, little one."   
  
Glitterfall blinked and seemed to catch herself off-gaurd, then she smiled and moved a step closer to him, meaning to invite him to her den later if he was in the mood for something more warm and pleasant than snooping about covered in woody-smelling gunk. She tossed her snowy hair over her shoulder with a careful sigh and tilt to her chin.   
  
A low growl from the nearby brush ceased her movement. Bright yellow eyes glittered from the leaves behind GreyStalker and the females knew it was Stealth, GreyStalker's faithful midnight bond-beast, a very large and powerful wolf. A wolf who was none-too-welcome in the pack at the moment, having set eyes on the alpha female's chosen mate. she glanced at Chari and saw the other female shake her head briefly in warning.  
  
When she looked back, Glitterfall could see GreyStalker's retreating form as he disappeared silently through the thick brush towards the deep forest. She shook her head and sent a farewell thought into his mind before he was too far out of range, ** Good hunting, GreyStalker. **   
  
***  
  
"Mother, I just don't understand." Songdaughter sat behind her mother, carefully rubbing the kinks born of a bad sleeping position the day before from her neck and shoulders, "How can an elf...an obvious wolfrider be so distant and away-from-the-pack?"   
  
Lastfall and her lifemate; Roughcall had gone off to be alone somewhere in the darkness of thier own special place...near the wolf dens. Leaving Songdaughter in the company of her mother, who'd come seeking relief from minor aches and pains in her shoulders and back.   
  
"We don't know that GreyStalker is a Wolfrider, cub." Gemsinger said, sighing as Songdaughter used her healing magic to pull another tight muscle apart in her shoulder, "Just because he has a wolf compainion. Have you ever seen him ride Stealth, as we ride our's?"   
  
"No." She said, gazing out the entrance to her den, the hide flap covering the door was folded open to allow the sun and air within, over her mother's shoulder and saw Chari and Glitterfall speaking to GreyStalker before he bounded off into the woods with Stealth when Glitterfall turned her head for a moment, "But, then, we hardly see him enough to..."   
  
** Help me! Help me! Please! ** The sending came upon them so arubtly, and was so intense that Gemsinger fell backwards onto her daughter and had to pull herself back up. She held her fingers to her head and closed her mind a little before sending a reply back.  
  
** Silentmoon...where are you? ** She sent, then, to Weepingshale; ** Chieftess! ** **Silentmoon is... **  
  
** I know. Come to the clearing! ** Weepingshale replied, her mind remained calm, though Gemsinger could feel the underlining current of fear the young chieftess tried hard to hide, ** The center of the holt.**   
  
"Mother?" Songdaughter whispered, feeling Silentmoon's fear-addled sendings as well as her chieftess' summons, "Silentmoon..."   
  
"Shh." Gemsinger said to her, "It will be all right. Weepingshale shall gather the others and we shall track her til we find her."   
  
** Please...someone...help me! ** Silentmoon's mind-cries went on, as ever, as if she never even heard Gemsinger's reply.  
  
"Oh, High ones!" Songdaughter cried, her eyes glazing over, "What if it's humans? Have humans captured her? No!"   
  
"She'll be all right." Gemsinger said, "We will find her. Pull yourself together, healer. We will need your powers when we find her, I fear."   
  
** You're right. ** Songdaughter gasped, drawing air in through suddenly too-tight lungs, ** It's just...we've lost so many already...and Silentmoon...she's still so young...**   
  
"She's an adult now." Gemsinger reminded her, "She may come and go as she wills and get into danger as she wills....now, come, let's go, I hear the chieftess speaking below in the clearing..."  
  
" Oh, High Ones..." Songdaughter whispered, following her mother down the tree and toward the holt center.   
  
** Please! ** Came Silentmoon's frantic plea ** Hurry! **  
  
** Hush, cub! ** Gemsinger sent, calling the girl 'cub' only from long habit, ** We hear you. A group of us will assemble to come to you...please...don't fear...send to us in small intervals so that we may follow your sendings and locate you.**   
  
"Chari, Star's Light, Lastfall, Roughcall, Coldarrow, Snake and Grass." The chieftess said, "Go towards sun-goes-down."   
  
The named elves took off almost at once, calling to thier mounts as they did so. Weepingshale turned to the others and split them up accordingly, sending each group off in a different direction to seek out the lost and in trouble Silentmoon.   
  
She handed Lake to her daughter, Seedling, who was standing near, her eyes wide with fear. She turned to her father and he took the wailing bundle into his own capable arms, struggling with trying to quiet him and protest Weepingshale's obvious decision to join the search.   
  
"You cannot go!" Bloodhowler stormed, as Crystalfrost stepped forward to take the infant into her own arms. At the scent of his grandmother, he grew quiet and only stared around with large eyes from her arms, "Weepingshale! You've recently had a cub!"   
  
"So?" She said, hands on her hips, her chin tipped in that defiant angle she used only rarely, when soft words and wise counsel did not get her point across, "A lot of females have cubs...that does not make them invalids, beloved."   
  
"But...what if something should happen?" He said, glancing at Seedling and them over at Crystalfrost holding Lake, "Let the others find her. Seedling is way too young to take your place and Lake...We need you here with us...where you'd be safe and unharmed...Chieftess."   
  
"I know your fear, Bloodhowler." Weepingshale said, "But, I cannot allow one of mine to be lost for long...I must go find her...with the others. If something happens to me...it happens. You will take my place until Seedling is grown enough to lead. We've always handled hard situations. My death would be handled as well. Now, if you are so worried for me, you come with me and we shall seek Silentmoon together."   
  
"But..." He started, but Crystalfrost, holding Lake in the crook of one arm, placed her cool fingers upon his bare shoulder. He looked into her beautiful face and gentle eyes, eyes so much like his lifemate's, as she shook her head silently, "Enough, chief's mate. Go and find Silentmoon. I will stay and take care of the little ones."   
  
Seedling had wrapped her arms about her grandmother's legs and said to them, "I know you'll bring Silentmoon back."   
  
"We shall." Weepingshale agreed, turning to leave, she called over her shoulder, "Come, beloved...the sun is setting and it will be easier to see by the light of the moons."   
  
***  
  
Cheetah stopped to ajust her belt and felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck standing up. She and the flirty-playful seeming Glitterfall had decided to go alone to seek Silentmoon. Actually, Glitterfall, with a mother's determination and fear, had left the group and went off in another direction, certain of finding Silentmoon quicker than the others. Cheetah had watched her leave and followed, not trusting Glitterfall to stay out of danger. The fluffy-haired one was great with cubs and as a lovemate, from what she'd been told, but she did not have a hunter's instinct.   
  
Glitterfall, tired, stopped as well. Leaning against a nearby tree, she sobbed and held her hand to her mouth. Silentmoon wasn't her birth-cub, but her mother; Nightbreeze, had been Glitterfall's lifemate for a long time and she considered Silentmoon just as much her daughter as Nightbreeze's.   
  
"If...she dies..." Glitterfall whispered, her eyes full of tears, her heart full of terror and grief, "I will have failed you, beloved..."   
  
Cheetah, behind her, heard her heart-wretching comment and knew she was speaking to her lifemate-no-more, and wondered, not for the first time, what happened to her...to Nightbreeze. She knew the story. Nightbreeze, Preyhowl and Nightbreeze's mother Evenheart had gone hunting in the snowy-time...the worse white-cold the elves could recall, to locate game for the tribe and had been ambushed by humans.   
  
Evenheart had been able to escape with a feverish Nightbreeze, but Preyhowl had been murdered soon after and Evenheart had perished in the wilderness when an ice-laden tree branch had fallen and crushed her. The entire tribe had felt the deaths of Preyhowl and Evenheart. But of Nightbreeze there was never a trace. It was almost as if they were no longer in her memory. Cheetah shudddered and shoved the past to the side, time to deal with the present...she thought of the young elf female they were trying to find and save and the cubs she could still bear when she was ready or when it was time...or there may be a very limited future.   
  
"You can come out from behind that boulder, Cheetah." Glitterfall sighed, swiping at her eyes, "I know you've been tailing me."  
  
"I just didn't want you to get hurt." Cheetah said, gracefully walking over to Glitterfall, "You can feel her? I feel something..."   
  
"I can feel her." Glitterfall said, turning slowly around, "And your right...there is something..."  
  
"Amiss?" Cheetah ventured, she shuddered as a feeling of darkness of spirit came upon her, "Foul."   
  
"Rotton." Glitterfall agreed, her own skin goose-bumping, "I'm afraid. I'm afraid for Silentmoon...We must find her!"  
  
"We must warn the others." Cheetah said, her voice a soft purr, almost cat-like, the birth-markings across her face looked like cat-fur marks and gave her a feline-look, "They must be aware of the danger."   
  
"But, we don't even know what it is yet, Cheetah!" Glitterfall cried.  
  
"Nevertheless." Cheetah said and sent back to the tribe, embracing each mind with her message; ** Tribemates! Glitterfall and I have felt something...dangerous. Be wary in your seeking! **  
  
** Glitterfall! ** The sending was near! Glitterfall gasped and opened wide her senses...she must find Silentmoon! ** Glitterfall! Be careful! He's near! H's near! **  
  
** Calmly, little one! ** Cheetah sent, hearing the girl's fearful mind-cries within her own head, ** Who is near? Where are you? **   
  
"He's over there!" Glitterfall cried, springing towards a thicket of close-knit trees. Cheetah leapt on top of her to halt her movement, "Let me go! Silentmoon! I'm here! I'm..."   
  
Cheetah clamped a hand over the shrieking elf's mouth and struggled to roll her over so that she was straddling her waist and looking down into her terror and anger-stricken face. Glitterfall didn't know that Cheetah was not trying to prevent her from going to Silentmoon and aiding her.   
  
** Quiet, Glitterfall! ** Cheetah used her parenting tone, the one she used with cubs who forget who was the elder and who was the cub, ** That thicket you nearly plunged into was full of strangleweed and wood-traps that snap-teeth-hard on soft flesh and fragile bones...Silentmoon is in there...trapped, yes...I can smell her now that the wind has shifted...but is she alone...? **  
  
Glitterfall paused, her eyes growing wide, then narrow as she sat up once Cheetah had lifted herself from her and lifted her face to take in the air around her in short, brief sniffs. She shook her head, confused, and sent; ** I do smell her...Silentmoon, I mean...I did before, that's how I knew...but her sending...and something about the way she was sending makes me...cold...**   
  
** It's all around me...** Silentmoon's mindtouch felt suddenly like fire, as if it were engulfing them from all sides in heat, ** Yellowsnarl...he got away...he wanted to stay with me...but I made him go! **  
  
** What's all around you? ** Cheetah sent, she kept tucking a loose strand of red-gold hair behind her ear, it must have fallen loose of the single low ponytail she normally wore around the holt. ** Silentmoon! **  
  
** Her leg has been crushed, foolish wolflings! **   
  
The sending was new, and strange, and uttery horrid. With a feeling like falling into a blackness without stars or moons...just cold, dark and empty...Cheetah and Glitterfall fell backwards with the force of that sending, ** And now...now, the time has come for my vengence! **   
  
** High Ones...is it...? ** Glitterfall asked when she could sit up straight. She looked over at Cheetah, who had recovered enough to stand, but shakily. She's lived a long life all ready, but nothing had prepared for that.   
  
** That's right! ** The sending came again, filling them full of sourberries, ripe and full of foulness, ** A High One...Should you not bow before me, worthless ones? **  
  
"I'll...show...you...worthless!" Cheetah gasped, bent over, her hands on her knees and her breath coming out in sharp gasped, puncuated by her words, "You...son...of...a...motherless...roundear!"   
  
Glitterfall gasped as Cheetah launched herself into the air and almost seemed to fly, her feet hardly touched the ground, as she tore through the very thicket she had warned Glitterfall away from only moments before. Glitterfall scrambled up, at the same time as one other hunter appeared from seemingly out of nowhere.   
  
** Glitterfall? ** GreyStalker said, worry in his tone. He'd just seen Cheetah take off like a bee was under her shirt and had felt an overpowering oppression from this direction a few moments ago. He had also sniffed out Silentmoon's where-abouts and was certain the rest of the tribe would be here shortly, now that the wind has turned so that most of the seekers could catch a whiff. ** Are you well? Silentmoon? Is she...? **  
  
There came loud thrashing and crashing from the thicket as Cheetah struggled to slice away the weeds that snaked around her ankles and calves and tried to bring her down to choke her to death. But she was too proud a huntress to die like that and besides...a cub needed her. She'd always been very protective of cublings...and soulname or not...Silentmoon was still a cub to her.   
  
** Cheetah! ** GreyStalker sent briefly before unsheathing his own dagger and diving in after her. Glitterfall, shivering nearby, sent to Weepingshale that they had found Silentmoon.   
  
** We will be there soon! ** Weepingshale sent back, fear beneath the calm relief in her sending.   
  
Cheetah and GreyStalker fought. Not with each other, but for each other...and for Silentmoon, who lay nearby, her left leg completly engulfed in a horrible looking thing made of wood with sharp-spikes like teeth all around...every one embedded within the girl's slender lower leg and half of her foot. Though, obviously in a lot of agony, Silentmoon was as her name...as still and silent as the two orbs now shining in the sky overhead, as she watched the battle rage.   
  
A bright light engulfed them. It was not a pure light, such as the moons' light or the light of the daystar...but a...a...they couldn't put a name to it. The warriors only knew that it was a bad light. As bad as the previous darkness had been.   
  
Cheetah was thankful for her face markings. They helped absorb part of the light. Her eyes streaming with tears, Cheeatah fought her way through the  
strangleweed to the tiny elf maid. Elven cubs were too rare to let even one pass from this world.   
  
Cheetah struggled with all her might against the  
clinging vines, finally breaking free into the clear center. As suddenly as the light had appeared, it vanished. Cheetah was temporarily blinded and disoriented.   
  
She heard Greystalker still struggling behind her. She closed her eyes and stood still, trying to hear  
and smell her surroundings. A subtle gasp from the side caused Cheetah to throw herself to the side. A whistling sound buzzed by her ear and a wooden  
trap snapped closed beside her.  
  
Cheetah growled; High One or not, this elf was threatening a cub. Cheetah had borne many cubs and she knew how precious each one was. She forced her eyes open, she could see vague indistinct shapes. The huntress knew that each step was dangerous.  
  
**Kneel before me and beg for my mercy!**  
  
Pain lanced through Cheetah's mind as she fought to stay conscious. The sending was overwhelming. The mind behind it was very powerful and  
commanding. Cheetah found herself rising to her knees. With an extreme force of will, she stood instead.  
  
**Let the cub go.**  
  
**FOOLISH CHILD!**  
  
A hand struck her across the face, knocking her back into the strangleweed. A small scream escaped Silentmoon's lips. The vines grabbed hold of Cheetah tightly; one arm was pinned to her body, her hand holding the grasping vines  
from tightening around her neck. Cheetah's head reeled, she was having problems remain conscious.  
  
**Silentmoon, forgive...**  
  
** Nooooooo! ** The mind-scream came from GreyStalker, slashing his way through the vines, though it seemed that as soon as he hacked one vine another grew to take it's place. His hood fallen back, grey eyes glazed with fear and determination, the elf did not cease. He had to get to them...He had to.   
  
Cheetah was near. The vines around her throat, growing fast to cover her nose and stuff her mouth...High Ones...No! He heard a growl behind him and for a moment his heart leapt in joy, before the familiar cold settled in.   
  
** Stealth.** He sent to his wolf-friend, while trying to reach Cheetah. The cub was safe enough for now...the 'bad one' wasn't harming her...yet. But Cheetah needed help now. ** Call the pack! **   
  
_Where's Weepingshale for Talltracker's Sake? Doesn't she care enough about her own tribe to..._  
  
He had almost gotten through...the vines around Cheetah's neck were hard to cut without hurting her. "Cheetah." He said her name urgently, hoping for a response as he ripped apart the few vines and grabbed her under the arms, behind her back and yanked her forward...out of the strangleweed patch. Snake-like growths writhes and flicked towards them, trying to catch hold. But GreyStalker held Cheetah and scooted away from the place in the grass where they had fallen...out of reach.   
  
"Cheetah?" GreyStalker tried again, as she lay in a stupor across his lap, her face pale and her lips blue. He heard Stealth's cry and knew she was calling the rest of the pack. Even though she was still on 'new wolf' terms with the pack, they would not allow anyone from the elf tribe to be in danger if they could help it. GreyStalker hoped the rest of the tribe would soon follow.   
  
** GreyWolf, is she all right? ** Silentmoon lock-sent to him, making his head hurt. Too much sending did that sometimes...hurt his head. He shook his head, not bothering to pull his hood back up even though he felt naked without it, and sent back; ** I don't know...Are you...**  
  
A profoundly horrid laugh interrupted his query and that did more than just hurt his head. It made him angry...and frightened.   
  
** He's hurting me! ** Silentmoon mind-cried, sounding for all the world like a little cub for all that she was nearly ninty four turns of the seasons old...a young woman....cub, but not little anymore. ** Why? Why is he doing this? **   
  
The pain of Silentmoon's ordeal was clear in her sending, making GreyStalker feel it as if he were the one to suffer from that crazy powerful elf's torments. Just as he was about to call the Weepingshale one more time, Songdaughter burst through the trees, breathing as if she'd been running for hours. She saw GreyStalker and Cheetah and knew what had to be done.   
  
Without waiting a moment, she pulled Cheetah from GreyStalker and laid her down flat upon the ground.   
  
"She started breathing again..." GreyStalker said, unsure of what he could do now that the healer was there, "I'm not sure how...but..."  
  
"Hush." Songdaughter's voice was cool and soothing like fresh stream water over a burn, "Let me work."   
  
Healing strength and power flowed into her and through her fingertips into Cheetah as she held her hands...one over the stricken woman's temple....the other placed just above her heart...Songdaughter felt the hurts the vines had done and the battle wounds that were new and bleeding from inside. She felt them all and reached to mend them.   
  
Pull everything back together and seal off holes that shouldn't be...cracks in bones that should be smooth. Songdaughter weeped as she worked....and a soft keening came from her mouth, without her even realizing it...she was singing...singing in a strange and fluid tongue...elven, to be sure...but not what she'd been taught...the words...the song...out of her in tranced lips were old...old and nearly forgotten.   
  
As GreyStalker watched and listened a shiver rode up his spine. The song she sang...the words were unfamiliar, and yet...familiar. He felt as if he had heard them a long time ago. A very long time ago. It made him think of...rainbow crystals and peek-holes covered with glass...slender tall ones floating carelessly in gossamar gowns of brightly hued sparkling fabrics.   
  
Elves he had never known...never seen...yet as he saw them just behind his mind's eye, he knew they had exsisted...once. He also knew, in the split second it took to doubt his own mind, that it was not his visions or memories he was seeing, just as Songdaughter was not singing her own song.   
  
"Memories..." GreyStalker whispered, realizing that it was the ancient, 'bad one' who was making the mind-pictures and ancient-song...Starsong, "His memories..."   
  
** Oh, My children...** He sent again, and the sending was weak...oddly...soft. ** I feel I need to destroy you all...The High Ones did not intend for thier children...my children...to walk this world the companion to beasts.**  
  
** We do so out of our own hearts! ** Cheetah sent, sitting with her back aganst a nearby tree while Songdaughter held moss to a deep cut in her head that hadn't healed properly the first time, ** Give us back our cub! **   
  
** No! ** He sent, and, because in sending there is only truth, they all felt his fear, ** She is mine! I need her! **   
  
** I am tired...** Silentmoon sent, faintly, as if she were falling asleep, ** He's taken so much from me...I can't...**   
  
"Noooo!" Glitterfall stumbled upon them, crying, blinded by her tears, her hands bare but balled into fists, "Silentmoon!"   
  
Before anyone could stop her, the cub's adoptive mother ran headlong into the strangleweed, not seeming to care that the deadly vines wrapped around her legs and tripped her or held her hands fast to her waist so she couldn't move.   
  
She struggled with all the strength of a mother trying to get to her endangered cub. Snarling like a she-wolf, she bit and tore at the vines like a longtooth cat in a human snare...as the rest of the tribe appeared and ran to aide her, using everything from knives to bare hands to sharp teeth to tear apart the vines...Glitterfall would have chewed her own limbs off if it meant reaching Silentmoon before it was too late.   
  
The vines, being manipulated magically by 'the bad one', continued to grow abnormally fast and the elves and wolves were swiftly getting caught up within them.   
  
If something wasn't done fast...The tribe would be history!   
  
Weepingshale could not allow that to happen.   
  
** Silentmoon. ** She lock-sent to the child, hoping her capture was too busy with the rest of her people to notice and intercept her sendings, ** Don't give up! **  
  
** Chieftess...** Silentmoon sighed within her sending, ** My eyes...see with...**   
  
** Your eyes will see with joy, Silentmoon! Your real eyes! ** Weepingshale sent, trying to mask the terror she felt at losing one of her own, ** How is he hurting you? We must find out so we can stop him! Can you tell me? **  
  
Silence. Weepingshale held her breath...ice water had replaced her blood, freezing her to the very core of her being as she waited.   
  
** Takes from me...** Silentmoon sent at last, sound far away...as if she were standing on a hilltop somewhere, ** Pieces...soul...essence...**  
  
How can we stop something that eats souls? Weepingshale asked herself, closing her eyes briefly, to gather strength. She prayed silently to her multi-greatgrandmother...Timmain...for guidance....  
  
"Timmain...Wolf-Mother...Please...Help your children! Lend me your strength of wisdom that I may save my people, your people...please!"   
  
She did not recieve any answer from the shapechanger, as she hadn't really been expecting one...but got an answer anyway...though not from Timmain.   
  
** Recognition! ** Silentmoon cried into her head, ** A recognition would stop him! A bond that powerful...So...great a need...he would be forced to stop everything else! If he recognized someone...and that recognition wasn't fullfilled....**   
  
He would die. No one needed to tell Weepingshale the price of unheeded Recognition...she had heard of elves who had refused the gift...or curse depending on your point of view...and did not perish, merely wished they had. But, she had never met anyone who had. She half-way believed the tales of those few and far between elves to be mind-mush, stories made up by the fire to pass time.   
  
She did not believe this elf could refuse it. Which brought two new problems to light:  
  
Who would he recognized...and How? Songdaughter could try 'forcing' it, but she's never done that with an unwilling participate before. Weepingshale didn't want anyone else hurt...which brought to mind yet another problem.   
  
How could they sacrifice one life...to save another? Weepingshale thought, Unfullfilled recognition...both elves die.   
  
"He's too weary from trying to hold us all off and keep Silentmoon still that he can't keep up the weed-growing." Bloodhowler was by her side, whispering, trying to buoy her spirits, He had just rushed from the weeds himself and looked foul to say the least, "Look! The tribe's nearly free and the vines are almost dead."   
  
Weepingshale nodded and longed to jump into the vines and start ripping and tearing with all the feiceness of she-wolf...as Glitterfall and GreyStalker...and she knew, Cheetah, had done. But she must think of Silentmoon. She must think of a way to set her free before it was too late. A way that none of her people had to be sacrificed. But how?   
  
Cheetah took hold of Songdaughter's hands. **Help me. I can save the cub. If Recognition is what he needs, then I will provide it.**  
  
**No!** Songdaughter protested. **You have been injured! You need to rest, the tribe will save Silentmoon.**  
  
Cheetah locked eyes with Songdaughter. ** It is my gift and my choice. Release the seed. I know it is there, but I do not have the strength to do  
it myself.**  
  
Tears sprang into Songdaughter's eyes. With a strangled sob, she placed her healer's hands on Cheetah's womb. Calling forth the seed was easy, Cheetah's gift aided her. Songdaughter sat back, tears flowing from her eyes as Cheetah stood up and stumbled towards the strangleweed.  
  
Weepingshale turned as Cheetah bumped into her. The new elf had her eyes closed. "Cheetah? What are you doing."  
  
** Saving Silentmoon. His eyes are the only ones I must see.**  
  
Weepingshale grabbed her by the shoulders. ** NO! I won't let you sacrifice yourself like this! **  
  
Cheetah smiled, her eyes still closed. ** It is my gift. I will live and carry the seed of the High Ones within me. I can save the cub. Let me go, Chieftess.**  
  
The sending was clear. Weepingshale released Cheetah and watched her walk towards the strangleweed. She stopped just short of their grasping vines.  
  
Weepingshale wondered what she was doing, then sensed the tension in the air. She was sending to the High One! Weepingshale watched, amazed, as the vines parted before the titan haired elf. Cheetah walked into the strangleweed patch; the elves attempted to follow but the vines closed up  
behind her.  
  
Cheetah reached the center of the patch and stopped before the High One, her  
eyes still closed. Slowly, she opened her eyes, her mind closed to the sendings of her tribemates. She met the High One's gaze without fear, but  
his emerald eyes swallowed her. She found herself racing across the heavens, her spirit free. She saw many wondrous things, old friends lost. Memory  
after memory flooded over her, threatening to wash her away in their tides.  
  
**Kunzarian, stop!** She sent fervently.  
  
**Your blood is not pure.**  
  
Cheetah stood her ground as she appraised the High One before her. He was very tall, he towered over her. His features were finely chiseled, his dark  
hair framed his face, slight curls cascading down his back. His brilliant emerald eyes were still on her, and Cheetah could see the intelligence and  
the madness that swirled within them. She fought to not lose herself in his eyes again.  
  
Cheetah had Recognized many times. She had borne several cubs; but this was the first time she was afraid of recognition.  
  
**Kylene.** His sending ripped through her soul like a sword, whisping her soulname with his mind, Cheetah let it. The pain went on and on as he walked through her memories. **Your life  
is but a spark to me.**  
  
Cheetah focused her thoughts on the cubs she had borne. She remembered each clearly, even though she had born three hands worth over the turns. Then she saw the cub that the High One could give her. **Kunzarian....**  
  
The High One faltered...and, for a brief moment...the look in his eyes changed...Cheetah thought he might strike her. But he did not. He closed his eyes briefly, opened them and reached a hand for her. She grasped it firmly and felt even more connected to him.   
  
** The stars sing me to you, little Kylene. ** He sighed within her mind, for a moment, recognition's stubborn demands blocking the madness, though Cheetah could feel it slithering beneath the surface of his thoughts like a snake within cold mud; waiting.   
  
** Though, for what purpose our offspring could hold is beyond even my vast experience and knowledge.**   
  
** All cublings are precious.** She sent, as he gazed into her eyes and she struggled, with each passing moment, not to flinch and turn away. He was so...beautiful...and so...dangerous. She brought forth images of all her hunts and joinings and the recognitions before to keep Silentmoon's visage from the forefront of her mind. ** As you once were. **  
  
** Once? ** The anger struck her like lightning, knocking her breathless, if not backward. If he had not pulled her to him and cradled her in his embrace she would have fallen, she was weak enough as it was. ** Am I not precious now, wolfling? **   
  
** You are! ** Cheetah gasped, ** To me, you are! Please...**  
  
** You are weak! ** He cried within her mind and threw her to the ground, ** And a fool. Do you think I would dally with you when I have other plans...**   
  
** Kunzarian! ** She mind-screamed at him, sprawled before his feet, glaring up, ** Look at me! You cannot deny that we are recognized! You cannot deny me! Look at me, Kunzarian! **  
  
** No! ** He sent, even as he sank to his knees before her, ** It's not right! The stars have made a vast error! A vast error! **   
  
** They have not, Kunzarian. ** Cheetah reached up, grasped his face in her warm hands and turned him towards her...so that eyes...once more...met eyes. ** It has not. **   
  
***  
  
Weepingshale was nearly at her wit's end wondering how Cheetah was faring. Bloodhowler embraced her and stroked her white-blonde hair, trying to calm her, telling her that everything would be all right. She wanted to believe him. She wanted more than anything to lay her head down on his shoulder and allow his strength to fill her...she wanted to give in to her desire to close her eyes and brush everything away.   
  
But she would not. She could not. She was more than just the chieftess of this rag-tag band of elves. She was thier friend, sibling, packmate. She pushed herself gently away from her lifemate and walked towards the healer, who was in tears just out of the strangleweed's grasp.   
  
At least she could still help to comfort another.   
  
"Songdaughter?" Weepingshale sat down next to her and took her hands in her own, "You've done so much to help Silentmoon...and us all."   
  
Songdaughter's mother stood next to her, looking worriedly towards the vines and then down at her weeping daughter. Gemsinger agreed with Weepingshale; "Your powers have never been needed more."   
  
"But...Cheetah...What if..." Songdaughter sobbed, hating herself for her weakness...she could feel the eyes of her tribe watching her. She knew Lastfall would judge her harshly for showing eye water, but she couldn't seem to help it. "What if...she doesn't make it...? If Cheetah dies...it would be my fault! Oh, Chieftess! What if I've killed her! Cheetah! Cheetah! No!"   
  
"Stop it!" Weepingshale slapped Songdaughter across the face. Not hard, but hard enough to shock the other woman out of her hysterics, which was uncommon for the healer but not surprising considering this was the first time she had been called upon to use her healing powers full-force and the strain had obviously gotten to her.   
  
"Songdaughter. Listen to me. Cheetah is strong. She'll make it. I feel it...inside. But even if she should perish...it would be no one's fault. We do not lay blame for death. It was Cheetah's choice, she knew the risk she was taking when she offered to help. You've done well, Healer. Stop your weeping and stand strong with the rest of us."   
  
The healer stood, gazing around at all the tribe, who had, at Weepingshale's order, stopped hacking away at the vines and now stood, with the chieftess, in anxious anticipation. Laststar, a deep jagged cut across her cheek, smiled at her with something akin to pride.   
  
Suddenly, Roughcall, who had been standing close to Lastfall, his lifemate, pointed toward the vines. Magic crackled in the air, making everyone felt as if a skyfire storm was directly ahead of them. Weepingshale felt her hair standing nearly on end. She fought the urge to reach up and feel her silken locks.   
  
"The vines!" Harbinger's voice rang clear, it was one of the first times Weepingshale had heard her shout...about anything, "They're moving!"   
  
Indeed they were. But why? Were they closing up tighter? Preventing them from ever seeing thier Silentmoon again? Weepingshale waited, with the rest of her people, for what was to be. Weepingshale realized, with her people, that she had placed not only Silentmoon's life, but the lives of all her tribe, in Cheetah's hands. She prayed the elfess would not fail.   
  
The vines parted, slowly, but they parted. Silentmoon lay, half sitting up, in their center, her eyes bright, a smile on her face to rival any smile any of the tribe had ever seen. Even though her left leg was still held in the tight embrace of the wooden trap that had snapped shut on it. Glitterfall let forth as strangled cry before launching herself forward and taking the youth in her arms. "We must pull you from these vines, Silentmoon."   
  
"I know." Silentmoon said, "He has agreed to allow me freedom...he will hold the weeds at bay."   
  
"It will hurt, Silentmoon, while I pull you free." Glitterfall warned. Songdaughter was behind her, ready.   
  
"I can handle it, Mother." Silentmoon's voice was brave, yet sad, she looked back, "He is still so confused inside..."   
  
"I know." Songdaughter said, as Glitterfall pulled her adoptive cub out of the strangleweed and forced back tears at the pain she as causing. Songdaughter shoved Glitterfall aside gently yet firmly and went to work easing the pain while Coldarrow stepped forward to remove the trap with careful hands.   
  
***  
  
** You have set the cub free. ** Cheetah sent, as she felt his breath on her throat, clothed or unclothed, it did not matter, she would have felt exposed either way, ** Now, you must set me free. **  
  
** I shall be alone...** He bowed his head, his hair falling in ringlets to shelter them from the chill that was more than just the breeze caressing them, ** Forever...alone...It is not fair that others...mingled-blooded others!...should have each other, while I...a true High One, should be forced to wander this cursed world alone! It is not fair! **  
  
** What is fair, Kunzarian? ** Cheetah sent, firmly, refusing to coddle him, ** Was it fair of you to trap an innocent and force pain and fear upon her? Was that fair? **  
  
** You are with child now.** He said, instead of answering her, ** My child. I cannot rid this world of you. You are too many and I am but one. Now, one of my own grows within you and shall carry my blood forward....for the low blood does not cancel out the high. Make me a vow while we are still cradled within recognition's glow, Kylene.**  
  
Cheetah waited, holding her breath. She knew what he would ask of her, even before he said it.   
  
"Take your knife, Cheetah." His voice was high-pitched and hurt her ears even though it was the most beautiful sound she'd ever heard...like the high notes of Gemsinger's flute, "And end my loniless...end my madness...end me."   
  
"You will not end, Kunzarian." Cheetah said, reaching for her knife. She would not take a life, an elf's life, without being absolutly certain there was no other way. "You will go on...in spirit...and..." She falterd, for she did not know what happened to an elf after death other than that they go on. Where they go is another mystery that she really did not have the strength or the time to start wondering about. "You will go on."   
  
"Am I still precious to you, Kylene?" He whispered against her ear, as she brought the knife down into his chest, tears in her eyes as his body shook beneath her. Blood, red and thick around her fingers that trembled as she held the blade in place. ** Yes, Kunzarian! You are most precious! Go now! Be at peace! **  
  
There was no answer and Cheetah shuddered, feeling the snake beneath the surface wither and die like a slug in the sun. She felt the warmth of tribemate's thoughts and feelings surround her and she knew, deep in her heart, that Kunzarian...where ever his soul was then, was at peace.   
  
With one last bit of strength, Cheetah stumbled from the strangleweed, which was dead as she stepped on it, it crunched under her boot, and fell to her knees before the darkness took over.   
  
***  
  
"Is she going to be all right?" Seedling was peeking over Cheetah, brushing her small hands across the adult's brow and holding a damp peice of leather to wash Cheetah's face as the healer stood watching nearby.   
  
They were in Cheetah's cave-den, the healer thought the brave elfess would rest more comfortable in her own furs and had been with her for three nights, caring for her. "Healer?"   
  
"She's going to be fine, cub." Songdaughter said, humming to herself as arranged her bowls of herbs and plant-clippings, "In fact, I wouldn't be surprise if she woke up some time tonight."   
  
"Would you be surprised if I woke up now?" Cheetah's eyes opened slowly and her voice was harsh, having not spoken for a few nights. She looked tenderly at the chieftess' daughter and reached for her hand, "Have you been with me all this time, little one?"   
  
"Not all the time." Seedling pouted, "I've been helping Songdaughter. Mother said it was all right."   
  
"Thank you, could you get me some water, please?"   
  
Seedling nodded, jumping up and running out of the den, eager to help.   
  
"Silentmoon?" Cheetah wasted no time, and the healer turned towards her, pushing her back down onto the furs.   
  
"She is fine." Songdaughter said, "Her and GreyStalker have been seen talking near the forest's edge. Something may be brewing there."   
  
Cheetah ignored the healer's sly smile and asked, "Is she really all right? What of her leg?"   
  
"She has scars." Songdaughter said, "I won't lie to you, Cheetah. I was not strong enough to remove them, but she said that she would rather keep them...as a reminder."   
  
"Puckernuts!" Cheetah spat, "A reminder? Of what?"   
  
"To stay away from strange-looking weeds!"   
  
In spite of herself, Cheetah giggled before the healer hushed her and forced her to lay back down and rest.   
  
~The End~   
  
  
  
  



End file.
